The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

Android phones more desired than iPhone or BlackBerry, survey says

Google's Android operating system already runs on more smartphones than any other OS, and Android phones may also be the most desired.

According to a Nielsen Co. survey of U.S. cellphone consumers conducted from January to March of this year, 31% said they planned on buying a new smartphone and that Android was their preferred OS.

A close second was Apple's iOS, which runs on the iPhone, with 30% of those surveyed saying they wanted the smartphones from Steve Jobs & Co. above all other options, Nielsen said.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphone were coveted by 11% of respondents, while about 20% said they didn't know for sure what they would choose, Nielsen said.

Not all that long ago Apple was edging out Google.

From July to September of 2010, a Nielsen survey found, Apple's iPhone was the most wanted smartphone.

About 33% of consumers surveyed in that period said they wanted an Apple iPhone, while 26% said they would choose Android phones and 13% said they planned on picking up a BlackBerry phone.

"Those dynamics are already translating into sales," Nielsen said in a blog post reporting the findings. "Half of those surveyed in March 2011 who indicated they had purchased a smartphone in the past six months said they had chosen an Android device. A quarter of recent acquirers said they bought an iPhone and 15% said they had picked a BlackBerry phone."

As of March, 37% of smartphone owners in the U.S. had phones running Android, while 27% owned iPhones, the research firm said.

Both, however, are beating the BlackBerry, which accounted for a 22% share of the market, Nielsen said.